1846] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



07 



NEW SHOW ROOMS AT MESSRS. WILLIAMS AND 



SOWERBY'S, OXFORD STREET. 



(ffilh Tito Engraviugs, Plato FII md VI 11.) 



Be»i<ic§ being quite :\ lion in iU way, — its actual purpose con> 

 sidtTcd, this very li.indsome apartment is of more tlian onlinnry inte- 

 rest as an arcliilectiir.il stiitly, since in addiliun to i"mbo|lisliinent it 

 di«pl;ivs nnusiiilly felicitous contrivance of pbin, and affords a strik- 

 ing in«t;ince of the peculiar cliarm attending arlistical arrangement of 

 enseiiihle preparatory to decoration. No matter how sumptuoiislv 

 thev inav be fitted up, rooms are almost inv.iri;ibly of mumitonniisly 

 uniform cli ar.icter in one respect, being rectangles inclosed by four 

 flit walls, and lighted from one side. There are thousands of splendid 

 drawing-rooms vvhich present only the minimum of aroliilectural de- 

 sien, they being far more indebteil for what character or attraction 

 they possess, to the decorator and upholsterer than to the architect 

 himself, who does lilile more than decide their size and projiortions, 

 and provide fur others (o operate upon, the raw material of bare walls. 

 Even the Clubhouses supply scarcely an exception to the rule. All 

 the more welcome, thf-n, is the one which forms the subject of the 

 engraving, and which is so creditable to the taste and ability of Mr. 

 Muratta. 



We do not recollect having ever before met with an instance of an 

 apparently very ungain and obstinate form of site being completely 

 overcome without any loss of space, and with such ingenuity of con- 

 trivance, that perfect regularity of plan is kept up to the eye, and 

 even when the deviation from it is discovered — which is not so easily 

 done by every one in the room itself as in a plan of it, — satisfaction 

 is r.ither enhanced than tlie contrary. The architect had here to con- 

 tend with an awkwarkness of shape somewhat similar to that of one 

 of the rooms of Lloyd's in the Royal Exchange, where owing to the 

 obliquity of its North side, the East end is wider than the other. In 

 such case, many would have cut the Gordian knot very siiininarily by 

 deciding that it was not worth while attempting to correct or ilisguise 

 the irregularity, the place being after all " only a shop !" — or it would 

 have been proposed to rectify the defect by merely carrying the two 

 longer sides at right angles to the ends, thereby reducing the East end 

 to the same width as the narrower one, getting out closets behind the 

 partition. Had that been done there would have been the unexcep- 

 tionable iecundum ar/tm parallelogram, — nothing either better or 

 worse than if there had been no difficulty at all at the outset, whereas 

 now, instead of being merely got over, the difficulty has been so ad- 

 mirably turned to account, that we may fairly asciibe to its existence 

 V9h-<t is most felicitous iu the treatment of the plan. 



There is besides considerable novelty in other respects, including 

 the mode of lighting the semicircular ends; and also the ornainent.il 

 details of the order, the capitals of whose columns are freely treated 

 as original compositions. We do not, however, undertake to decide 

 how fjr their design is to be approved of, because that would require 

 more deliberate examination than we have had the opportunity of 

 making. For a similar reason it is somewhat doubtful to us whether 

 the striking distinction made between the shafts of the pilasters and 

 those of the columns, be altogether satisfactory : wliile the latter are 

 of scagliola in imitation of Siena marble, the faces of the others are 

 decorated with paintings upon raised slate panels. — Would it not 

 have been better both for the sake of greater novelty as well as uni- 

 formity, to have decorated the shafts of the columns also with painted 

 arabesque ornaments on them ? 



The general coup d'mil, we should observe, is greatly enhanced by 

 two spacious compartments, viz., at the East end and on the North 

 side, being entirely filled in with looking-glass. Indeed, effect seems 

 to have been studied throughout, and no pains spared to render the 

 apartment an unusually scenic piece of architecture. The principal 

 dimeotiuns are as follows : 



General size of room - 57 by 35 feel. 



Diameter of larger semicircle • 36 ft. 6 in. 



smaller ditto • 35 



Dome - - 10 6 



Height of Dome - - 35 



Columns - - 14 



Ceiling - - 23 



The engraving Plate VII. shows n plan and a vertical section of the 

 room drawn to a scale of 16 feet to the inch, letters r are recesses for 

 carpetK, &c., and Plate VIII. shows the capitals of the columns, the en- 

 richmenlv of the cornice and soffit of the arch upon an enlarged ycale 

 of li inch to the fuut.the upper eniichment of the cornice iKcuutioued 

 all rvuod the show room*. 



He. •}.«>Voi.. vm.—Acaa, i84i. 



CANDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOK. 

 FASCICULUS LXIIL 



" I must have lli.erty 

 \riilial, as large a cli^irtcr as the winds, 

 To lilow on whom 1 ploaie." 



I. The doctrine of Architectural Professors and Teachers is litlle 

 better than the doctrine of despair. What it strives most earnestly 

 of all to impress upon us is the fatal idea that architecture has already 

 and long ago reached the utmost possible limits of its career, and that 

 nothing remains for it but to commence anew another stoic vear in 

 which all the past is acted over ag.iin. Nay, so preposteroiislv in 

 love are they with such doctrine — as if it were the most encounging 

 and comfortable one that could be adopted, — th.it even to hint at the 

 possibility of onr being able to achieve fresh and yet untried excel- 

 lence in architecture, is treated willi contumacious scum a-; arrant 

 heresy. Not content with our admiring and doing full justice to 

 former excellence, they insist npon our not seeking to obtain any other 

 that shall be worthy of being admired in its turn. Thev prohibit, 

 under the penalty of their severest anathemas, eveiy attempt of the 

 kind — an excellent method, by the bye, of verifying their own dismal 

 prophecies, it requiring no great prophetic skill to foresee that we 

 certainly shall never get a single step forwarder in art so long as we 

 agree to stand slock-still. Architecture, says Victor Huge, is the 

 onlv art for which there exists no future: and such, thanks to the 

 combined bigotry and dulness of its hierophants, seems to be the case. 

 We are not even so much as permitted to imitate those wheiu we ar« 

 hound to admire, by pursuing the same course and producing fr"sh 

 ideas pro re Ka^rt. We are expected to be impressed with a lively 

 sense of our own incapacity, and to be thoroughly grateful accordiiiirlv. 

 We are relieved from the necessity of s/«rfi/fH^ former productions of 

 the art by having only to copy them, no matter though Ihe copies 

 should be somewhat .^sopian, and remind us of those pithy fables of 

 the Ass in the Lion's skin, and the Jackdaw in borrowed plumes. — 

 Mojt cheering and consoling doctrine truly! — No wonder then that 

 academical Professors exhort us in their lectures tx calhedid to follow 

 the clever policy of stealing from books ready-made designs for por- 

 ticoes. 



II. Were yen to propose any adjunct, to a church in the shape of a 

 fore-court with a cloister on its sides, for monuments — or of an inner 

 vestibule for similar purposes, the idea would be instantly scouted as 

 something "monstrous extravagant," and causing wasteful expense. 

 Yet it is the mannir rather than the matter of the expense that startles 

 people. You may add to the body of a church what amounts both in 

 size and cost to another structure although onhanextra to the church 

 itself, and no objection whitever shall be made to it. For instance, 

 to a church some seventy feet in length within, you miy add what 

 shall be upwards of a hundred feet, provided you do but put it iu a cer- 

 tain position and orthodox attitude, namely placed upright iiiste.ulof 

 horizontally. To build a noble portico that added forty or fifty per 

 cent, to the cost of a church would be deemed a sort of madness, but 

 to erect a tower and spire that add cent, per cent, to if, is considered 

 merely matter of course, notwithstanding that it seeins very oddly at 

 variance with that strict eci nomy and exact comput.ition aceoiding 

 to wliich the utmost n'lmber of sittings are to be provided within a 

 given space, for to leave any space unoccupied within, or to provide 

 more than was actually required to be occupied would be considered 

 absolute wasterulness. How f.ir a tower and spire are at all service- 

 able or worth their cost by increasing "cliiirch-accominoil.ition" ac- 

 cordingly, I leave tlie reader to decide. To s.iy the truth, there is 

 just now a sort of mania for church architecture, in Ihe Gothic style, 

 and with tower and ipire as indispensables ; and in that sfiecies of 

 design we have just reached a degree of decent respectability where 

 we seem destined to stick fast. One thing of the kind is pretty much 

 like another: a spire is becoming quite as common-place a matter us 

 a portico; and, it may be suspected, is like the latter frequently re- 

 ceived as an equivalent substitute for all other merit, and as what 

 must at all events be provided, even thoiigii it be by cutting down the 

 rest of the design, and by paring away not only mere orn.iments but 

 essential and characteristic detail. The mam/acture of Gothic is, no 

 doubt, greatly improved, but a good deal ol Gothic is little, better 

 than mere manufacture. Neither is that style very well fi;ted for 

 new churches in towns and streets where every thing else is of qiite 

 modern physiognomy, and where it consequently shows it-elf like a 

 puerile afiectation of antiquity. If we must build churches of the 

 kind in towns, they ought at least to be in.-ulated and further, de« 

 tuched eA much as possible from other buildii gs so as to be viewtd us 

 independent objects, whereas now they arc geuerally built into a Ubq 



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